Sneak Peek

From yesterday's governors' conference on climate change at Yale:

Stay tuned more more, including Arnold Schwarzenegger getting a massive auditorium of Yalie environmentalists to cheer at the prospect of killing endangered squirrels in the Mojave desert.

Comments

J sub D | April 19, 2008, 2:19pm | #

Stay tuned more more, including Arnold Schwarzenegger getting a massive auditorium of Yalie environmentalists to cheer at the prospect of killing endangered squirrels in the Mojave desert.

Huh? SWAG, some sort of proposed solar energy system?

Priapus | April 19, 2008, 2:30pm | #

I don't know what that guy on the left is trying to say. Condi's a nice piece of elephant for one.

J sub D | April 19, 2008, 2:39pm | #

I don't know what that guy on the left is trying to say. Condi's a nice piece of elephant for one.

I think it's a reference to all of the choice cuts of donkey that all the the four star restaurants offer.

anonymous coward | April 19, 2008, 2:59pm | #

The shirt is stupid, but the snowman is adorable. I've been cured of my global warming skepticism by him and his sign.

Dave B. | April 19, 2008, 3:02pm | #

It took me a second, but he's referring to "a nice piece of ass"

Barack Obama | April 19, 2008, 3:03pm | #

I think it's a reference to all of the choice cuts of donkey that all the the four star restaurants offer.

A nice Donkey cutlet at the Four Seasons is the only thing that can take my mind off of the gay-bashing, gun-toting, Christ-worshipping, elephant-eating hicks.

GG | April 19, 2008, 3:15pm | #

The shirt is stupid, but the snowman is adorable.

I'm partial to this week's Phoenix New Times cover myself.

Shannon Love | April 19, 2008, 3:18pm | #

These conferences have a long track record of success. After all back circa 1980, a similar conference was held to develop strategies based on the unquestioned scientific consensus of the day that the earth was out of petroleum and other "natural" resources. The governors all declared we would have to learn to live without oil.

Today, of course, no one worries about running out of oil or other forms of energy, so I guess the governors fixed the problem. Based on this track record, I feel confident that 20 years from now, no one will be worried about global warming either.

Shodan2020 | April 19, 2008, 3:23pm | #

I'm just curious as to why a snowman would be wearing earmuffs. He's not helping himself stay cool with those on. :)

Chris Potter | April 19, 2008, 3:43pm | #

Snow men wouldn't be going extinct if they weren't using so much birth control. Let that be a lesson to you.

J sub D | April 19, 2008, 3:47pm | #

Snow men wouldn't be going extinct if they weren't using so much birth control. Let that be a lesson to you.

I've heard from reliable sources that cause of snow people population decline is the well documented fact that snow women are all frigid.*

* I know, too easy.

crimethink | April 19, 2008, 4:36pm | #

Easy but good...well played.

The Wine Commonsewer | April 19, 2008, 4:56pm | #

The shirt is funnier and makes more sense in this context.

KD | April 19, 2008, 5:22pm | #

The Wine Commonsewer | April 19, 2008, 4:56pm | #
The shirt is funnier and makes more sense in this context.

Thread winner!!

Eric Atkinson | April 19, 2008, 6:10pm | #

When I think of democrats...I think of ass.

David | April 19, 2008, 6:18pm | #

The snowman is awesome in a Calvin and Hobbes way.

jackal the carlos | April 19, 2008, 7:13pm | #

I have had about enough of goddamn snowmen ... I always wished that Frosty had remained a puddle.

ed | April 19, 2008, 7:21pm | #

"Elephant" is a typo.
It was supposed to say "eggplant."
It makes much more sense that way.

Brandybuck | April 19, 2008, 8:02pm | #

Is that guy suggesting that Democrats are asses? I can go along with that!

sage | April 19, 2008, 8:19pm | #

The guy on the right reminds me - I could go for a sourdough jack and and an ice cream shake.

BlueBook | April 19, 2008, 8:23pm | #

That snowman bears an eerie resemblance to an old eyewitness sketch of an alien encounter. Notice the blank, soulless expression, indicative perhaps of cybernetic hive-mind control.

Chris Potter | April 19, 2008, 8:23pm | #

Yeah, I've never heard anyone complain that a place smells like elephant, either. So it cuts both ways.

John C. Randolph | April 19, 2008, 8:38pm | #

I've been cured of my global warming skepticism by him and his sign.

All the screeching from the lefties who equate skepticism with holocaust denial didn't change your mind already?

-jcr

Guy Montag | April 19, 2008, 8:44pm | #

I missed another costume event! Will have to go to DC tomorrow and see if there is anything being protested by clown-suited lesbians on stilts.

Mad Max | April 19, 2008, 8:54pm | #

The thing is, I find the idea of human-caused global warming quite plausible (not that I assume it's the worst threat facing humanity or anything).

If people are skeptical of global warming, maybe it's not because they have been duped by an oil-company-financed conspiracy of denail. Maybe it's because the environmentalists have been poisoning the atmosphere (so to speak) with so many doomsday forecasts since the 1960s that it's hard for serious people to be taken seriously when they talk about global warming.

The boy in Aesop's fable was always making false warnings about wolves attacking the sheep. Finally, the people just tuned him out. There were still wolves out there, but that smart-ass kid ruined things for everybody by discrediting the whole idea of vulpine predation.

Even serious scientists with buttloads of degrees after their names, who had no personal involvement in any of the prior panics, will have to deal with this skepticism, especially since *some* scientists are on record about the need to exaggerate in order to draw popular support.

"This time we *really* mean it - this time we're not cranks trying to fulfill our psychological need for a secular sin-and-redemption scenario - please believe us!"

It's like the "anti-communists" who accused Eisenhower and George C. Marshall of being part of the Communist conspiracy - that sort of thing turned some people off from anti-communism so badly that they become hesitant to acknowledge *real* communism, for fear of encouraging "McCarthyism and Red-Baiting." So we have NYT obituaries of open, notorious Communists which never mention their Party affiliation - just allude to their "controversial politics."

Saul | April 19, 2008, 8:56pm | #

All the screeching from the lefties who equate skepticism with holocaust denial didn't change your mind already?

No, no, you misunderstand. We equate it with stupidity.

The Wine Commonsewer | April 19, 2008, 9:27pm | #

No, no, you misunderstand. We equate it with stupidity.

Yes, yes, [lights pipe} and you guys were spot on about, let's see, a billion people starving to death by 1980, three mile island, the known petroleum reserves (five or six times), and Che's humanity, God Bless him.

The Wine Commonsewer | April 19, 2008, 9:41pm | #

Thanks KD, I've not won very many threads, so I shall place the statue on the glass mantle next to gleam jar of sand from the black sand beach, the lava blackened driftwood, and the 12 inch black marble obelisk.

I took a thermodynamics class once, ok twice | April 19, 2008, 9:49pm | #

I'm just curious as to why a snowman would be wearing earmuffs. He's not helping himself stay cool with those on. :)

As long there is no Q dot, h is lowered in both directions.

Whether the ε for blue and red makes the earmuffs and gloves thermally wise or just a fashion faux pas (two primary colors! and don't get me started on that scarf!) is left as an exercise to the reader.

M | April 19, 2008, 10:07pm | #

TWC - On a libertarian thread, the first person to vote appoints the thread-winner.

I suppose on an anarchist thread you can win without even that vote.

Kinda cool.

And people wonder how we took over the world from the statists.

Chris Potter | April 19, 2008, 10:07pm | #

Earmuffs aren't primarily intended as thermal insulation. All that's needed is a physical barrier to keep the most energetic air molecules in the ear canal from escaping.

Deceased Equine Pugilism Squad | April 19, 2008, 10:15pm | #

Earmuffs are also to prevent frostbite from wind blowing over pretty much the most exposed and non-insulated piece of skin on the human body.

Hugh Akston | April 19, 2008, 10:28pm | #

Earmuffs also help drown out troublesome questions about the continuing controversy over the extent and immediacy of climate change, and which if any potential solutions are technologically possible, economically feasible, and not just greener-than-thou rhetoric.

TallDave | April 20, 2008, 12:46am | #

Nooooooooo Frosty noooooooooooo!

That's it, Global Warming. Now it's personal.

Jim Walsh | April 20, 2008, 2:12am | #

It's like the "anti-communists" who accused Eisenhower and George C. Marshall of being part of the Communist conspiracy...

Whatever happened to those wingnut types, anyway? Oh yeah, that's right: they all got into talk radio. (Oh well, anything that keeps them off the streets...)

John C. Randolph | April 20, 2008, 6:00am | #

We equate it with stupidity.

Ah, there we go: standard lefty technique for winning friends and influencing people.

So, if you believe that we're in mortal peril from global warming, do you also believe that you can prevent this disaster by mustering all the snotty condescension you can manage?

-jcr

Nobel Peace Oscar Winner | April 20, 2008, 6:11am | #

which if any potential solutions are technologically possible, economically feasible, and not just greener-than-thou rhetoric.

But our planet has a fever! If your baby has a fever, you have to do something! If we have to roll back greenhouse emissions to where they were in 1850, even though the global population is six times bigger now, well, we just have to roll up our sleeves and get it done!

Guy Montag | April 20, 2008, 8:32am | #

OT: Danika Patrick got her first IRL win yesterday.

P Brooks | April 20, 2008, 9:20am | #

Was there a massive crash while she was stalled in the pits, or something?

Don't tell me- I'm still trying to figure out when they're going to show the replay.

Episiarch | April 20, 2008, 9:26am | #

Thanks KD, I've not won very many threads

You haven't won anything. Note this and despair: I win all.

The Wine Commonsewer | April 20, 2008, 9:54am | #

Epi,that doesn't make you any more specialier than anyone else. So there.

Episiarch | April 20, 2008, 10:28am | #

Oh hell yes it does.

The Wine Commonsewer | April 20, 2008, 10:39am | #

And would you feel the same way if Kerry looked like forty miles of bad road?

Chris Potter | April 20, 2008, 10:49am | #

And would you feel the same way if Kerry looked like forty miles of bad road?

Well, he looks like 80 miles to me.

...oh...THAT Kerry.

jkp | April 20, 2008, 10:50am | #

When I saw the T-shirt, I thought instantly of the 4/21/08 cartoon from the IBD:

http://www.investors.com/editorial/cartoon.asp

Chris Potter | April 20, 2008, 10:52am | #

Also, it's interesting that that thread contains Edwards' reaction to Hillary's bawling,

I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business.

which is basically the same thing Hillary's saying this week about Obama's complaints about debate question. Full circle indeed.

Episiarch | April 20, 2008, 11:06am | #

And would you feel the same way if Kerry looked like forty miles of bad road?

That's entirely the point, dude. To reiterate: I win.

Heff | April 20, 2008, 11:21am | #

Earmuffs also help drown out troublesome questions about the continuing controversy over the extent and immediacy of climate change

Earmuffs are also a fun thing to do with large breasts.

Heinrick | April 20, 2008, 11:58am | #

'It was supposed to say "eggplant."'

Actually I have had a nice peice of egg plant.

Guy Montag | April 20, 2008, 12:28pm | #

Wow, was expecting more action here while I was out "changing the environment" and picking up a sammich at The Italian Store in Arlington.

Portnoy | April 20, 2008, 12:30pm | #

Hmmm... eggplant...

P Brooks | April 20, 2008, 12:36pm | #

Looks like Kyle guessed right for a change- he pulled Danica in at the end of the yellow to top off, and she's saving fuel already.

The Wine Commonsewer | April 20, 2008, 12:54pm | #

What? Danica had her top off? Shit, I only get the no-pay ESPN.

P Brooks | April 20, 2008, 1:01pm | #

I'm still going to call her "Danica Kournikouva."

Guy Montag | April 20, 2008, 1:03pm | #

TWC,

That is a one-piece suit. you missed everything.

P Brooks | April 20, 2008, 1:09pm | #

Tell the snowman to lay off the melodrama- it's snowing.

Michael Ejercito | April 20, 2008, 1:09pm | #

That is one hot costume- and not in a good way.

Guy Montag | April 20, 2008, 1:16pm | #

Experts suspect that the declining snowperson population is a result of higher levels of DHMO in modern snow than before the out-of-control weapons building programs of the Bush administration began.

Guy Montag | April 20, 2008, 1:34pm | #

Six Mexican drivers are starting in today's Nationwide Cup NASCAR race.

Odd thing, Kenny Wallace's regular sponsor is not popular in Mexico for some reason, so he is wearing a Boston red Stockings racing suit instead. Forgot if I mentioned that yesterday, but worth mentioning again.

heh2k | April 20, 2008, 6:02pm | #

I'm sure there's a furries group in dc, and who knows who you might meet!

Guy Montag | April 19, 2008, 8:44pm | #
I missed another costume event! Will have to go to DC tomorrow and see if there is anything being protested by clown-suited lesbians on stilts.

Guy Montag | April 20, 2008, 11:17pm | #

heh2k,

I didn't get over there, how was it?

J | April 21, 2008, 9:01am | #

Won't somebody please think of the snowmen!

Andrew G. | April 21, 2008, 10:07am | #

LOL, the Snowman was pretty funny... He marched past my office window with a bunch of other people, before they all got in line to go watch the conference. Most people were only there to see Arnold though.

Paul | April 21, 2008, 1:43pm | #

Speaking personally, we could sure use a little more global warming where I live.

Gabe Harris | April 21, 2008, 2:03pm | #

“You have to ask what would it take to set off the alarm bells to make this a top-of-mind priority in the body politic. If you had told me a few years ago that we would be facing a situation where the entire North Polar ice cap was going to imminently disappear, I might have thought we’d certainly get people’s attention, and yet only to a limited degree.”

Al Gore


wow, the ice caps are dissappearing any day now, but the sea leel hasn't risen any yet? I'm not sure what to do.